


Empty

by MonaLisa709



Category: Alice in Wonderland (Movies - Burton)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Insanity, Insecurity, Love Confessions, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 15:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10744518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonaLisa709/pseuds/MonaLisa709
Summary: "Alice, please, Ah need yeh, please, donnae leave meh alone.Ah cannae trus' mehself, Ah've- Ah've hurt people, Alice, please, Ah need yeh.This place, so crahwded, yeh're always in my 'ead, yeh're so close, bu' Ah reach fer yeh, an' yeh disappear...Yeh said yeh'd come back befer Ah no'iced, bu' Ah no'iced five years ago..."





	1. The Prisoner

Tarrant stared into the deep darkness of the cell in front of him, the roughness of his shackles cutting into his wrists and the cold of the air around him raising goosebumps on his mercury-stained skin.  
A single ray of light broke through the dust and grime of the cell window as the sun rose over the trees outside, illuminating the floor in front of him.  
His amber irises fixed on the bars covering the window, then moved to the chains holding his arms above his head.

He could hear voices outside the walls, familiar voices that pulled at the back of his mind.  
The fair voice, the voice that belonged to the woman in white- (damn, what was her name?!)- said, "Oh God, it can't be!"  
The deep voice, the voice that belonged to the caterpillar, said, "Yes, Mirana, I'm afraid it is true."  
A small voice, the voice that belonged to the dormouse, said, "Oh no, we can't tell him, it'll destroy him!"  
The fair voice replied in a tone most dire, "But we can't avoid the truth. We can't leave Tarrant in the dark anymore."


	2. News From Above

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tarrant hears that something horrible has happened.

Tarrant strained to hear the voices outside of his cell, almost to the point where he was leaning off of the wall, held hanging forward by his chains.

The caterpillar said darkly, "What will we do if the news breaks him? If it finally destroys his sanity? Will we keep him here forever?"

The fair voice said, collected but a bit afraid, "Well, Absolem, if it breaks him, we cannot risk him becoming violent. If we set him loose, and he started killing, the fault would be ours. And when he finally comes to his senses, he would not forgive himself. If it breaks him, I believe he must stay here."

She paused, then continued with tears in her voice, "He has cracked before, but not completely broken. When his dearest friend left him, he was nearly unapproachable. He had nearly destroyed his home, tearing holes in the walls and ripping up the carpets... When we saw him, he had broken a mirror and taken the shards... Making gashes in his skin..."

Her voice collapsed into tears. 

After a few moments of comfort from the dormouse, the fair one concluded, "Then he was only cracked. If he were to fully break, he would destroy himself. If it comes to that, we have to keep him here."

The dormouse said in a voice dripping in sadness and fear, "It would be best."

Tarrant heard footsteps grow closer, and secretly he dreaded the news that the others said might break him once and for all. 

When he heard the footsteps stop at the door, he spoke, loud and clear enough for them to hear his words outside of the cell, "An' wha' is tha news tha' yeh believe migh' brehk meh?"

Silence answered him.

He pulled roughly at his chains, causing the links to yank together, and he screamed, "TELL MEH!"

He heard the door to his cell being unlocked, and in a couple of seconds the door swung open, giving way to the blinding light on the other side.


	3. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The terrible news is revealed.

The woman the fair voice belonged to cleared her throat, and stepped closer to the chained hatter, saying in a voice filled with sorrow, "Tarrant, news has arrived from the Aboveland, and..."

She trailed off, obviously trying to avoid the topic. In protest, Tarrant pulled at his chains a second time, screaming in a voice that was now hoarse, "TELL MEH! TELL MEH NOW!"

The dormouse spoke up, saying timidly, "Well, Tarrant, Alice, well, she's..."

She looked up to the woman in white for help, but the woman simply held her face in her dainty hands. The dormouse faced Tarrant again, and continued, "She's..."

"Dead." 

The caterpillar finished, taking in another drag of his hookah. 

Tarrant said nothing.

Inside his mind, that single word echoed over and over and over again, growing louder and louder until that was all he heard. 

dead... 

dead

dead 

Dead 

Dead 

Dead 

Dead 

DEAD 

DEAD 

DEAD 

DEAD 

DEAD 

His legs collapsed underneath him, leaving him to hang by his wrists with his knees touching the ground; his head hanging between his arms as he finally made a noise.

A sob.

Instead of a scream or a wail or a roar (that the others had been expecting), he simply clenched his eyes shut, as if trying to deny the inevitable tears from streaming down his face.

His shoulders shook as his sobs grew louder, wracking his entire frame with what seemed like pure anguish. The others turned away from him, closing the cell's door behind them and leaving the hatter in the dark once again.

Once alone, he muttered through his tears, "Alice, Alice, you're gone, you're gone, and you didn't come back. You lied, you lied..."

His speech became drowned in tears, and his fingernails began digging small crescent-moon cuts into his palms. He winced at the small twinge of pain, biting his lips as he opened his hand to see what he had done.

His usual bandages were long gone, so there was nothing protecting his mercury-stained skin from his unkempt fingernails. He had drawn blood.

But the pain of losing Alice returned in almost physical waves, causing him to whiper to himself, "Alice, why did you have to leave? Why did you leave? You could have lived forever here, but you left, you left me all alone with nothing but your voice in my head..."

He tucked his face in the collar of his jacket, tearing streaming so incessantly that they soon soaked the musky material. He bit his lip in an attempt to distract himself, to give him something, anything to take his mind off of her, but whenever he shut his eyes, her face was there taunting him.

He screamed, throwing his head back so that he hit the wall behind him. The darkness taunted him in its silence.

******  
-One month later-

Tarrant stared into the inky darkness with his irises a full grey, his arms suspended above his head as he knelt on the cold floor. 

His reason for living was gone. His light, his muse, his only love, was dead.

Dead.

The word still rang coldly through his fragile consciousness, drowning out all other sound.

The others hadn't told him if he was broken or not, but if anything could physically describe a human being as broken, this would be it.

Alice was dead, and there was nothing for Tarrant in this life anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Please review if you would like me to continue this.


End file.
